Final Letter from Elder Bryen North

going to get him

Dear beloved readers!

This is my final letter to close out my Mission letters! Thank you so much for reading and praying.

My mission was a huge experience in maturing spiritually and mentally.

He has landed

I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the church restored by Christ onto the Earth. Just as we respect the prophets of old and adore the apostles of the New Testament, we have the utmost gratitude to Joseph Smith who sacrificed so much without compromise to bring others what he knew to be true. To point others to their Messiah, their Savior, their Redeemer. If you still don't know much about the church, please get yourself familiar with what I had just spent 2 years on my feet doing all I could to share with others. Give a local Latter-Day Saint the blessing and opportunity to answer your questions and tell you about what makes them happy.

My work ethic has molded from the meager philosophy it was into a practical tool that I know I need to keep sharp so I can cut my own path through life. Seeing and talking to so many people of so many backgrounds was a motivation in thinking, 'there is no reason I cannot make it in life just like all these people have.'

I have not eliminated all my anxiety or fears, but I certainly know how to better deal with them now than I did then.

A mission is a sacrifice, but it was absolutely worth it. Having something as good as the Gospel in it's restored form, no faults, just like that Savior who taught in his life, and after his Resurrection. If you're not completely confident in the Resurrection, I invite you to Read the Book of Mormon and pray asking in faith if it really happened! If Jesus' life, death and atonement are real! Seek sincerely to know if you can see your family again after this life is done. Pray with faith and real intent and you will be answered.

I'll see a lot of you soon, but see you or not, I love you and pray you feel God's love.

-Elder North

MOM HUG - BEST THING EVER!

Group photo

Welcome home Elder North

Getting released as a missionary

Putting his last sticker on his chart.

 We are so thankful for everyone's love and support for Bryen over the last two years and would like to invite you all to hear his report on his mission on Sunday July 12th at 10:10am at the LDS church building at 2742 West 14400 South, Bluffdale, UT 84065.  Our sacrament meeting is last so after that we will come back to our house and we welcome you to enjoy some lunch and visiting with Bryen.  Our address is 4111 Red Tail Drive, Riverton, UT 84065.  If you cannot make it to his talk then come about 12pm and we will be back.  Thanks and look forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Letter home from Elder North

Date:  June 22, 2015

Area: Lakeland, Tennessee

Companion:  Elder Bunderson

 

Dear 2nd Gigs,

My last Monday Preparation Day, it's been a crazy time. I mean the whole thing. Strange to think of anything but Mission Life at this point. Twice I've auto-piloted to backing someone from outside the car when I did not need to. It's habit now.

Final preparations don't take as long as one would think, though it's a tad more nerve wracking since I won't be able to get anything just handed around the mission back to me if I forget it. I am pretty adept at packing now and capable of living off a closet's worth of space.

We're going to go fishing with a guy we met. He lives outside of our area but he fishes in our area, we're trying to get him in touch with his area's missionaries and trying to teach his friend.

Sunday we went through the entire ward roster with our Ward Mission Leader and Brother Deter, so that list we made of people and families should help flesh out our time.

I'll see you all soon!

-Elder North

 

Letter home From Elder North

Date:  June 15, 2015
Area:  Lakeland, Tennessee
Companion:  Elder Bunderson

Dear Clocks,

We had an excellent lesson on Saturday with a woman named April. We had been trying to get in touch with her for a while and are glad we were finally able to. She had a friend over and together they are definitely interested in learning about the church. Hopefully that interest includes a willingness to pray.

Just earlier we helped a new family move into the Ward.

I've got my letters from the mission informing me that I need to get ready to go home. I suppose when you get to the point that the mission is informing you of how little time you have left that you ought to at least try and look forward to what comes after mission life.

Keep up the good work and I'll be seeing many of you soon. Read the scriptures, because they are the words of Christ.

-Elder North

Letter home from Elder North

Date:  June 8, 2015

Area:  Lakeland, Tennesse

Companion:  Elder Bunderson

 

Dear Rapscallions,

 

We did a number and variety of interesting things this week. We saw the new Angel Moroni get placed on the temple. We got to toot the horn of the old one and then we helped load in the new baptismal font. They had to remove the front doors of the temple and we got it in there, then had to lift it up. We laid it on the railing for the night and came back the next day to help after they had built an A-Frame above and around where the font needed to rest. We pushed it out to the center resting on six boards, hung it from the A-frame by chains and removed the boards. We then lowered it down into place. Pretty crazy, it weighed 1500 pounds! No one was crushed.

 

We performed 2 tests to try and finalize how transfers will be done. I thank Dad for the advice to talk to Stake Technology Specialists, that got us in touch with Brother Day, who knows his stuff and is training Elder Bunderson on it.

 

I see you had a good time in Chicago, good for you! It seems like an exciting place.

 

We are going to have another major meeting on Friday this week with Elder Kopischke, but apparently there will not be a bus like last time...so getting there is going to be fun!

 

Keep praying for the missionary work, but not just for the missionaries, but to recieve and recognize your own chances as well to share the gospel!

 

-Elder North

Letter Home from Elder North

Dear Highbloods,

The advent of the iPads is now going to arrive in the mission as of Thursday, where we will likely leave the meeting with them. They already introduced them in the Mission-Wide meeting last week. Elder Bunderson and I may have some specific responsibilities with them on this side of the mission but so far they haven't given us any major, concrete jobs to do.

We'll probably go fishing with a guy and his wife that we met while walking around. That'll be neat.

We don't have a lot of major things going on since we both just got here, but that should start picking up soon. The members feed us absurdly well so we have been meeting with people in the ward each night.

Remember to do your home and visiting teaching!

-Elder North

Letter home from Elder North

Date:  May 25, 2015
Area:  Arlington, Tennessee
Companion:  Elder Bunderson

Dear Cemeteries,

I am serving in Arlington 2, very close to the Lakeland area I served in before. A very interesting thing that happened this week was we had dinner with The Garret family, and Chad Garret was one of Grandpa Terry's Boy scouts! He shared with us how Grandpa would circumvent a Merit badge requirement he considered dangerous. He found the Whole 'air pants balloon' thing for the swimming merit badge to be too dangerous too often and instead would follow the instructions to the letter in such a way that they would not have to do it normally.

Biggest surprise on my Mission? How shockingly slow so many people are, Christian people, to pray. It is the crux of our teaching as everything hinges on the spirit teaching them the truth of the gospel and if they don't pray it's a tough thing for them to find out!

I've become pretty accustomed to talking to new people, the advice Dad gave me before I left helps. People expect missionaries to talk to them and talk to them about their church. No reason not to fulfill their expectation! Act our part and do what we can.

I had served around my new companion before back in Kennett, his name is Elder Bunderson.

Our address is

9345 Triumph Circle

Lakeland TN, 38002 Apartment #203

-Elder North

Letter home from Elder North

Date:  May 18, 2015
Area:  North Little Rock Arkansas
Companion:  Elder Reed

Dear Ghouls,

I am being transferred! Onto a new area for my final run. I had an extremely excellent time with Elder Reed here in the office. Dwayne still wants to be baptized and won't be moving away and despite the many things they need us to do we still managed to do a good amount of proselyting.

This week is crazy for the office elders, with at least four days needing to be spent over in Memphis.

I've got to pack and go to a new area for the last time and I probably need to offload some stuff permanently. I've been taking pictures more so I'll come back home with as loaded a camera as possible.

Congratulations to Mikel for preparing for his mission! It will be excellent all around I am sure.

-Elder North